Week Ahead Wisdom

If you’ve been feeling super serious and mulling over major life decisions recently, you aren’t the only one. With confusing world events and harsh energies to deal with, it’s a lot for anyone to take! As we step into a new paradigm, simultaneously moving towards the new while being grounded in the present can also be a tricky balance to navigate. Maintaining this tension takes energy, presence of mind, and stamina. And like an athlete, this requires training and self-care, balancing out a time of action with a time of rest and recovery, seriousness with joy and equanimity.

Check in: where have you been experiencing an imbalance recently?

This week, it’s a time for lightening up by consciously seeking out activities that take you out of your mind (in a healthy way!). Always factor in joy – it’s often a neglected ingredient that makes all your plans enjoyable and actually sustainable. One easy way to start connecting with the joyful kid inside of you is to go play – and to do things simply for the sake of enjoyment. You don’t even need a lot to start doing that – for example, it can even be about taking the time to enjoy dressing in the mornings, delighting in colored markers, taking time to be without needing to do, even if just for an afternoon. It’s summer in the Eastern hemisphere, and the perfect time to unwind and let yourself unfurl…

“The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one’s work seriously and taking one’s self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous.” – Margot Fonteyn

This week, there could be a temptation to act from our baser instincts. To control, to manipulate, in an attempt to move things along quicker. Our world leaders aren’t exactly showing us the best ways to behave right now (though arguably, they have never exactly been the best exemplars), and as much as people say they ‘aren’t into politics’, the caliber of our leaders – of all kinds, in all spheres – does matter. Leaders set the tone, they legitimize behaviors, they demonstrate the standards to aim for. In today’s world, we are being asked to hold ourselves up to impeccable standards. To the best that we can ask of ourselves, regardless of whether we see evidence of it in the outside world or not.

Don’t allow others to dictate the standards you set for yourself.

So slow down, and as you look ahead, consider the other and the impact your actions will have on them. It’s also important to consider your plans within a larger picture, beyond simply something that serves your ambitions. How are they contributing to the world? Maybe that seems a little too lofty a goal. Perhaps you can think of it as: who are you serving? How are you touching their lives? Do you truly embody the message you are trying to convey?

These days, any kind of fluff or obfuscation will not stand the test of time and will quickly be revealed to be the sham that it is. You have to walk your talk. We are all being asked to walk our talk. Beyond pretty pictures on social media, we are being asked to stand up and be counted. On the flip side of it, if you are prone to imposter syndrome: know that if you are acting from an authentic place of power within you, that is already enough. You don’t have to be a superhero or Wonder Woman to do something truly special. Speak up and and act from the heart. You are already enough.